Divers pull out 1,200-year-old canoe from bottom of lake in Wisconsin

A team of scuba divers have pulled an 1,200-year-old 15-foot dugout canoe from a lake.

The boat was first spotted by a maritime archaeologist from the Wisconsin Historical Society during an underwater scooter ride.

Now the watercraft has been pulled from Lake Mendota in Madison, Wisconsin, USA and carbon dated to 800AD.

The boat was found 27 feet underwater, keeping it protected from sunlight, and in such good condition.

Tamara Thomsen, from the Wisconsin Historical Society, rode under the lake in June on an underwater scooter and mistook the boat for a “log sticking out of the bottom of the lake”.

After investigating further, she saw it had been hollowed out to be used as a canoe and initially thought it could have been made by Boy Scouts in the 1950s.

A sliver of wood was taken for carbon dating, and the true age of the vessel was revealed to be over 1,000 years old, meaning it was likely made by a group called the Effigy Moundbuilders.

The Moundbuilders were Late Woodland people who lived in what’s now Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa between 750 and 1200 C.E.

A method for making a dugout canoe in this time was to burn the inside of a tree trunk and use stone tools to remove the charred material.

It is believed to be the oldest intact watercraft ever found in the state.

On November 2, divers dredged mud from the canoe and manoeuvred it into a large sling to raise it from the water.

With the help of Dane County Sheriff’s Office, the archaeologists then attached inflatable yellow bags that were pumped with air to raise it to the surface.

It was then towed to shore by a motorboat and transferred to land with a metal ladder.

The canoe will undergo a series of preservation treatments over a two year period before it may be displayed at a planned Wisconsin Historical Society museum.